The dawn glared through the skin of Elissa’s eyelids, and she turned over in her bed. Rohen had blackout curtains and his face was deep in shadow, the only sign of dawn being a slit of crimson thrown across a dusty floor. Whisper was drenched in it: stood against the balcony balustrade with tears in her eyes, looking just about ready to dive into the scarlet lake. And Calix crouched in darkness behind a set of bins, mesmerised.
Elsewhere: gulls pecked at the guts of a dead desert rat, the chlorine filter silently pumped in the poolhouse, and stray paper debris cartwheeled around corners. The well workers switched shifts; some walking away from the factory gates, others cycling through it and away to their beds. A little later, the fleet of motorised rickshaws with the multigallon tanks of water on their backs began to exit too, weaving through the streets and delivering the daily supply to the towers and street-tanks. The orphanages got their own personal supply, of course. Even the buildings requisitioned for the overflowing amount of brothers the city was providing them with had had pits dug and water containers buried into the ground besides them. The odd cry and murmur issued from the windows of the nursery.
***
Knock knock.
“Hey, El!”
On her belly beneath the sheets, Elissa stirred. There was another knock which jumbled the fog of her brain. It wasn’t someone knocking on her door, it was her knocking on Georg’s door, then seeing the state of the shack inside as she let herself in. The knocks became recurrent until they sounded like the rattle of death. Georg’s slumped over body shook.
“Elissa! Wake up!”
“Hmm?” she rolled over, the darkness having left the sky and her room. She fought against the glue in her eyes top open them.
Knock-knock-knock.
“Hold on, I’m coming,” she said groggily. She got out of bed and went to grab her jacket, then remembered it wasn’t there, and grabbed a robe instead. “This better be important, Avery.”
She opened the door and he stuck his head in the jamb.
“Only about the most exciting thing that can happen! Your man – he’s escaped!”
“You what?” Her stomach dropped. She opened the door further and stepped aside so he could enter.
“I can’t really stay, I still haven’t slept, though good luck with that now!”
“What’s happened?” She glanced around to the clock – five AM.
“I was about to turn in for the night when the radio frequency – all the frequencies – were taken over. Listen.” He held up his mini-radio and turned the dial.
“… on the lookout for the stranger. He is quite dangerous.” Quintessa sounded even colder over the radio waves. “He attacked two of our guards and escaped. He is also quite rude, on top of everything else. He must be apprehended so we can apply the full force of the law upon him. We are still not sure where he came from, which makes him all the more dangerous. Who knows what his motives are. He must be caught. And we will find him – with your help. Law enforcement are right now searching the streets, so he will get flushed out. If you see him, you must report it immediately.”
“Turn it off,” said Elissa.
“Exciting, eh?”
“The poor guy must be scared. He’s done nothing wrong.” She turned quickly to find some clothes to put on, causing Avery to turn his back.
“But err… well, you heard the ice queen. He attacked two guards.”
“He had to escape Avery. If he’d told them the truth they’d have killed him, or worse just kept him locked up until everyone had forgot about him.”
“What truth?” He turned back, just as Elissa was pulling on a T-shirt.
She sat on the rumpled bedspread, tying her boots.
“What truth?”
“Avery…” she finished the lacing and stood.
“Yes?”
“Don’t go to bed yet. I’ll meet you on the roof in a short while, okay?” She put her arm around his shoulder and ushered him out. He did a little shuffle as she closed the door behind them and headed for the exit.
***
She went straight to The Crank. As she neared, she slowed down; officers were walking the streets and she didn’t want to attract attention.
I hope you’ve got a good hiding spot.
“Miss,” said one of the officers. She was tall and broad-hipped.
Damn. “Yes?” There was a momentary standoff as Elissa forgot what was customary.
“You gonna make me come over there?”
“Sorry.” She walked over to the officer, who held out a printout to her. It was Calix.
“Have you seen this man?”
“Not yet – I was hoping to be the one who would stumble upon him. Is there a reward, do you know? There was talk of a reward.”
“Reward? No, where did you hear that?”
“Oh, just, nevermind. I guess I was just hoping that with our Grace, Quintessa involved, there’d be a reward.”
“Just her appreciation I dare say. Well, keep your eyes open.”
“I will,” she smiled, walking away at pace.
Ahead, The Crank came into view. She rarely saw it at this hour, and there was something sad in the darkness of its lettering and the soulless black entity of the windows. It wasn’t the prettiest of buildings to begin with, but in this orange-red dawnlight and absence of activity, every crack and peel of paint was highlighted.
A gust of wind blew and she held her arms, wishing again that she had her jacket.
“Where are you?” she said aloud. Maybe if I just stand around for a while you’ll see me, she thought. She leaned against one of the decorative walls of the outside seating area, scoping the area. There wasn’t much to it: a few buildings with flat-faces and flat-roofs, no alleyways or shop alcoves to be hiding in. Maybe he was behind her.
She looked back at the tables and chairs arranged neatly, but the tops were glass and he wasn’t skulking beneath any of them. Then she looked at the door and saw it was slightly ajar. As she got nearer to it, she saw that it had been prised apart, with splinters of wood scattered on the floor. She pushed the door open, stepped inside, and called out “Calix?”
He stepped out from the shadows at the back.
“Calix, yes. You made it!”
“I escaped yes, though I’m still to be convinced that was the right decision. I was being treated well.”
She rushed into the centre of the room. “Just trust me. If they could have covered you up, after you told them the truth, they would have.”
“Well, they still could.” Coming closer to the light, she could see that he looked considerably better than before – his face wasn’t so red and his eyes were remarkably clear. They’d given him a haircut too, and shaved his beard down to stubble.
“You have to come with me, quick, before more people wake up and more officers get on the street.”
“Where to?”
“Mine.”
“Is that safe?”
“It’s our only option.”
***
Outside, Elissa lead them both to the back of The Crank, and they followed the path that took a more circuitous route to the back of her own building. Longer, but with the most potential to keep Calix away from curious gazes.
She walked confidently out into the front of her building, as though this was her normal route, and checked to see if anyone was around. There wasn’t, and she ushered Calix in through the front door.
“Keep going,” she said. “Climb to right to the top.”
“What’s the plan?”
She closed the door behind her and engaged the lock. Wow – was that the first time? she thought. “I’ll tell you when we get there.” She watched him stride up the steps, hands gripping the handrail hard, she noticed; his forearms straining as they helped pull him up.
“Are you a hundred percent?” she asked. “Or more like fifty?”
“I’d say about fifty,” he said. “This it?” He put his hand on the door handle for the door to the roof.
“Yep.”
Avery gasped when he saw them, and Elissa had to suppress a laugh, amazed to see him speechless for once. “While I have your attention, get your transmitter tuned. We’re going live.”
“Live? Is that the stranger?”
“His name is Calix, and he needs to speak to the town.”
“Say what?” asked Calix, grabbing Elissa’s arm.
“You have to tell them the truth.”
“The truth? I came here to escape having to tell the truth.”
“No, no you didn’t. You tell everyone the truth, and they can’t hide you. You’re already out.”
“Then they’ll kill me.”
“Why would they kill you? They’d have no reason to kill you.”
His face creased, clearly flummoxed. “I don’t get you.”
“They might punish you for escaping, or for attacking the guards –”
“What guards?”
“They said on the waves you attacked two guards.”
“I didn’t attack anyone.”
“All the better then. They’ll give you a slap on the wrist and you’ll be free to continue, whatever it is you were doing before you wound up here.”
Calix shook his head. “I’m sorry, I’m just a little confused. You made it sound like my life is in danger and now you’re saying I’ll be able to go free?”
Elissa considered for a moment that perhaps things didn’t work the same here as they did in this ‘Sanctum’ of his. “I don’t know what your people would have done, but here, whenever someone does something against the law, they get an appropriate punishment that takes all the circumstances into account. And you haven’t even broken any law, that I know of.”
“Ready,” said Avery, shifting aside from the microphone and offering the seat to Calix.
Elissa lead Calix to the seat, handed him the microphone and said “Tell us all about you, Calix.”
Avery pressed a button, a red light came on, and Calix coughed. “Do you have some water?”
“Always got some at the ready,” said Avery, handing over a bottle.
Calix drank gratefully, then coughed again to clear his throat. “Okay then. People of… whatever you like to call this town. My name is Calix, and I am not from here.” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “I am the stranger that Elissa picked up near the mountain of sand, and I come from the other side. There is nothing like this there. There, it is all sand. You can’t even properly walk on it without the proper shoes. And we live in domes,” he looked up at Neon City and paused a moment, before continuing. “But they are small domes. Much, much smaller than this one that I’m looking at right now. Where I’m from, we call Sanctum. There has never been more than one hundred people living there. We grow our own food and make our own things, trading with other domes and exploring the sand in giant crawlers for old technology or anything that could be useful. No-one has ever climbed the sand mountain before, or at least if they had, they never came back to tell us about it. I…” he coughed. Elissa noticed how his fingers began to rub against the microphone. “I was tired of the mystery. It’s not much of a life, over that side of the mountain. Did I mention there’s no sun? That’s right, only cloud. My heart almost stopped when I saw your sun for the first time near the top of the mountain. It was that which kept me going. I tumbled and tumbled down the other side. Almost sank into it a few times. But somehow I made it to the bottom. I couldn’t believe it when I hit the hard ground. And then I saw where I was. On the edge of nowhere. If it hadn’t been for Elissa, I’d be dead.”
She squeezed his shoulder.
Silence filled the space.
Avery clicked a button and then put the message out on repeat. “Nice little tale you wove there, Mister Calix.”
“Yes, well done,” said Elissa. “You didn’t happen to see my jacket before you escaped did you?”
Disruption
Jud
gement
The Queen’s Chambers floated high above the central plaza, connected by glass walkways and stanchions from the three towers. It served as a gangway between the towers of Quintessa, Frita and Kali, with the train-girls crossing and barely even registering the five-hundred foot drop visible beneath them. They’d cross and skirt the perimeter to one of the other sides, unless they had business inside the chamber. There, they would hardly notice the polished white stone of the grand floor, or the ornamental eaves with gilded cornices and feather-edged sunflowers depicting the stages of the sun throughout the day, or the mural-lined walls portraying the histories of each of the three houses: successions of female-dominated families, and not a male in sight.
With every newborn girl space was reserved for her portrait, normally for when she reached adulthood. There were a few prepubescent girls and babies in the murals, those who had died before coming of age. With every newborn male, they were gifted to a maternal train-girl to raise as their own, which was thought a great honour.
***
This was all mundane to the train-girls and women going about their daily business, but it was quite remarkable to Calix. He was sure the glass was going to break as he stepped upon the walkway – This is my punishment, he thought. He had to stop his knees from quivering; force one foot after the other, until Elissa clapped him on the back and forged onwards. “Come on,” she said.
“Easy for you to say.”
Since the morning, there’d been a lot of chatter on the waves discussing the implications of a whole other world on the other side of the sand mountain, and lots of interview requests. Calix had kept his head low, and even slept for a couple of hours, but when the Queens summoned you, there was no escape. Elissa found him some semi-formal clothes to wear: black trousers, a white shirt, and a jacket with a strange, oversized collar. It kept rubbing his lower jaw. Even Elissa had put on formal wear, which he got the impression was rare: a two-tier black dress with a single, sloping collar that ran up to her ear.
She stopped and opened a door for him, saying “Boys first,” and then followed behind. There was much for Calix to take in, but the most immediate was the circular hole in the middle of the floor. It was framed by a colourful mosaic with points of yellow sun-rays stretching into the smooth, white stone. The circle was mirrored in the awnings.
“Needless to say,” whispered Elissa. “Don’t go near the hole.”
“They run out of stone?”
“Hardly. It’s rare – there hasn’t been one in my lifetime – but it’s a final solution for anyone truly beyond redemption.”
“Death?”
“By sundown.”
“Sundown?”
“Not sundown as in dusk. Once a day the sun shines through the hole in the roof, through the hole in the floor, and paints a pretty little orb of light in the plaza below. That’s when someone gets thrown in: sundown. But as I say, hasn’t happened for ages. These days people unite at sundown, standing in the spotlight of the sun and exchanging vows. ‘I promise to love you ‘til the sun stops shining.’ That kinda thing.”
For a moment, that made Calix wonder what Annora was up to right that minute. Then an older lady, possibly the oldest he’d seen yet, with white hair sweeping across to the left and then down over the right breast, ushered him further into the chamber. “They’re waiting for you.”
He nodded. Elissa stepped to the side slightly, so he took this as a cue to lead.
Quintessa, Frita and Kali remained seated in their thrones as he made his way carefully onto the white stone floor, stepping down onto it. He had the irrational fear that water was going to gush from some hidden pipe and wash him away like mud down the drain. He stopped well short of sundown.
“Please state your name,” said the usher.
“Calix.”
“Louder,” said Frita. She wore a long, dark-brown dress that blended with her skin, and her kneecaps poked from her crossed-leg position. Her hair was elaborately braided and weaved in and out of her headscarf. Perhaps forty, her face was stern, thick
lips puckered.
“Calix,” he said again, louder, though it felt like his voice was immediately sucked up through the ceiling and into the atmosphere.
“What was the meaning of your escape!?” demanded Quintessa, tapping her fingers.
“I didn’t realise I was imprisoned.”
“Your Grace,” Elissa whispered behind him.
“Your Grace.”
“You are not from here. You do not know our ways,” said Kali. Calix looked across the spectrum of queens and settled on her; she was smiling, and curling her dark brown hair in her fingers.
Quintessa stomped some sort of sceptre on the floor and hmmphed.
“So you do not need to say ‘your Grace’ – at least for now.” Kali looked across to Frita, who nodded. Quintessa crossed her legs.
“Can I speak freely?”
“Go ahead,” said Frita. She sat in the middle of them. Maybe that meant something, so he began by acknowledging her.
“You’ve already signalled that, in some small way, I was in fact imprisoned. Sure, everyone was very nice to me, and I would likely be dead if not for Whisper. Is she okay, by the way?” Elissa had thought it a good idea to ask this question, to show sympathy. She’d also coached him on a few other points.
“She’ll be dealt with,” said Quintessa.
“I feel bad for betraying her. I just want to say that I hope nothing bad happens to her.”
“Noted,” said Kali.
They weren’t so bad, he thought. The more he spoke, the calmer he felt. “As for ‘escaping’ as you call it. I really did have some amnesia in the beginning. I was trying to remember, so together we could take the next step. But I got scared after – if you’ll excuse me – after Quintessa paid a visit. She was very forceful, and I began to wonder what might happen to me if I did tell you the truth, as I was coming to remember it.”
Neon Sands Trilogy Boxset: The Neon Series Season One Page 32